This is a draft post, and will be updated with more info. For now, some things to consider:

As noted by an attendee, an awesome resource for making your first (and not only) iPhone app is the Stanford CS193P Module notes. To follow the notes you do need a Mac, an iPhone however is not required since you can do most of the work in the simulator provided.

Going beyond testing your app on your phone, and actually publishing it on the App Store worldwide, is a slow and tedious process for the initial account setup. Address, Bank and Tax info/contracts need to be completed, with the original hand signed forms mailed to Apple in the US, and you are quite stuck if your only address is in Greece (at least Greek addresses were not valid back in October 2008 when we started, anyone who has a different experience now please do post in the comments).

We want to help people focus on their ideas and not the bureaucracy that is required.

Therefore we offer you the ability to publish your app under the established GreatApps brand at NO cost (and you get all the profits). Apart from being a big time-saver, this will also help you get the visibility you need to succeed (iSteam now has an established user base with more than 2 million downloads so far). So if you are interested, drop us a line in the contact form on this site or mail us at greatapps@gmail.com for more info, and we will be happy to help you out.

As a last note, we are also looking to collaborate with great developers. If you want to help us build a team of highly skilled and talented individuals, you can drop us a CV at greatapps@gmail.com. With the App Store being such a rapidly changing and competitive environment on a global scale, we are looking for people who already have some experience developing for Apple platforms (Objective-C, Mac or iPhone) and want to join us in order to help build disruptive apps – stuff that everyone will be talking about. What we offer in return is pay that beats the average web-development offerings, bonus packages based on the success of the projects you will be involved with, and an inspiring working environment where the current average age is 23 years.

Soon to follow: a mailing list for everyone who wants to be kept up to date with the latest news about future meetings and happenings – the next iPhone Development Garage is alreay in the works!

…The graciously misspelled “Bananna&Apple“! !
The Sense Graphics creation won by a Landslide of as of now January 28 22:00 GMT, 4498 votes in the first ever Steamie Contest!!

Author: Sense Graphics

And what a Contest it was; With over 7000 votes and 2000 submitted Steamies, we are nothing but amazed by the sheer number of people that contributed to the success of this event. And fear not, we are sensible of all the observations you, our community pointed out during the contest and so we decided to Smurf Steam things up:

When we first decided to set up the competition we never imagined what would have followed. Our iPhones went mad beeping with new emails. The participation was huge and we THANK YOU for that (we got more than 2000 Stemies, by 1800 iSteamers from 60 countries around the world…)
Well, we must also thank all our supporters who submitted SEXY steamies that drove our team members nuts. If we could publish all the steamy steamies … well … we would definitely shock the world. We faced a real dilemma in deciding the top 20 creations on our website -published below by popular demand- since most of them were really….. artistic ….. but we couldn’t include them fearing that we would be rated as an 18+ App.

So, sexy steamies aside, now it’s up to you guys to decide the best steamie and thus the winner of the iPod touch. The vote will be simple. The steamie that will receive the most votes by this Wednesday, January 28, 12:00 GMT will win the iPod Touch. We will personally contact the winner and their prize will be dispatched immediately.

Hit the jump to Vote for The best Steamie out of the Top 20 selected by our staff.

Further expanding the Sensation that is iSteam, version 1.2 is live on the App Store! And for this one we are really proud. Built around feedback from iSteam users, bloggers, twitters, youtubers and our own creative touch, 1.2 puts version 1 to shame, for not being this complete:

The Steam is now High def and any older versions of it pale in comparison. It is a thing of beauty.

By popular demand, iSteam offers the inbuilt function to save your creation, your Steamie; Just select “Save Steamie” from the options menu and your selection is saved in your camera roll.

1 finger was inadequate.. You could not reenact famous cinema scenes with 1 finger.. Wiping away steam with 1 finger is not satisfying enough.. No more 1.. Use as many as you like! Multitouch support is now enabled!

All of these, though, are just the means. The parameters that make iSteam just potentially awesome. Your creations, your Steamies are what fullfill that potential. The Steamies are awesome. You can now send them, as before, to your friends, but also to us with one simple push(ok touch, no buttons for the iPhone) of a button:

Use the “Submit your Steamie” option to send us your creations and be featured on our website today! And that’s not all. From today, January 19 2009, every Steamie you submit to us, automatically enters you in our Contest. Use all of your Creativity, Imagination and Weirdness. Harness all of your mental power, foresee what the people will like, or just Doodle… The best of the best 20 Steamies will be up for vote by our Community this Sunday, January 25 2009 on this site.

A big thank you to everyone who has downloaded iSteam for iPhone/iPod Touch so far.

We have listened to your feedback and immediately released an update with better iPod support, available now on all App Stores worldwide.

Some notable facts we would like to share with you:

– New 1.1 version is our best steam simulator yet. Available for 99 cents only, free for all existing iSteam users.
– Total downloads including the 1.1 update are now on the 1 million mark, stronger than ever.
– Paid version of iSteam already in the #10 Entertainment apps in more than 40 countries, all done in less than 3 days. Proves that steaming your device has no cultural boundaries.
– Currently experiencing more than 14% daily growth, with estimated monthly revenues of $100,000 – all this just 8 days after iSteam was first released.

One more thing…

Something really interesting has happened since iSteam hit the top chart spots on Jan 4: Similar apps like iFart and iBeer have seen their numbers go down for the first time.

The charts say it best:

iSteam dominates #1 spot

iFart numbers start going down

We think this is Hot News. Can a bunch of 22-year-olds really dethrone well established Apps backed by millionaires? We certainly hope we can make the air in the App Store cleaner. Less stinky at least.

At GreatApps we take entertainment very seriously. That’s why we are commited to making iSteam the best 99 cent entertainment you can get on a mobile device. We are hard at work around the clock, and hope to push iSteam 1.2 to the App Store very soon with improvements and features that will blow you away, again!

*iSteam is a quality app, beware of cheap imitators trying to steam up your phone

[UPDATE:]

A note to everyone writing to us on how we could roll out an update so quickly and that we are getting preferential treatment from Apple: This is not true. It has simply been a matter of careful planning ahead.